Disillusioned former Mars Hill Church members, faced with senior pastor Mark Driscoll’s claim that they “remain anonymous,” have taken to Facebook to deliver on-the-record explanations of why they departed the Seattle-based megachurch. They have invited those who left the church to make a declaration:  “Dear Pastor Mark and Mars Hill: We are not anonymous.”

Disillusioned former Mars Hill Church members, faced with senior pastor Mark Driscoll’s claim that they “remain anonymous,” have taken to Facebook to deliver on-the-record explanations of why they departed the Seattle-based megachurch.

The result is a message to Driscoll and his executive elders:  Whatever it preaches about God’s life, Mars Hill has created a lot of hurt.They have invited those who left the church to make a declaration:  “Dear Pastor Mark and Mars Hill: We are not anonymous.” The Facebook page can be accessed here.

Driscoll delivered a modified, limited mea culpa last week in a video address to Mars Hill members.  He acknowledged critics among those who have left his flock, but said “a lot of the people we are dealing with in this season remain anonymous.

“And so we don’t know how to reconcile, or how to work things out with, with people because we’re not entirely sure who they are, and so that has, that has made things a little more complex as well.”

Diana Normal Antoniello used the Facebook page to tell Driscoll who she is, and let him know why she left.

“My name is Diana Antoniello and my husband is Don,” she wrote. “We are not anonymous because our son, Darren Antoniello, has been at Mars Hill since 2012.  He is still fully entrenched and has become a different person because he is following false prophets and doctrines.

“He has basically excluded us from his life.  His community group is now his ‘family’ and he is required to share the intimate details of his life with them.”

Lee Brown served Mars Hill for six years, played worship in three bands, led a Bible study, and was with a group that cooked 500 hamburgers for a Golden Gardens baptism.

“But,” he told Driscoll, “you’ve lost your way. Autumn and I sent you and others have sent you and others our resignations with no response.  We couldn’t get a meeting with you …”

Driscoll wrote to his flock in March, with a promise that he was going off social media for the rest of the year and scaling back his outside speaking. The Mars Hill co-founder had come to what he called an understanding that he could not be a “celebrity” pastor while tending to his congregation.

The dissenting voices in his church speak of a harsh, judgmental, dictatorial environment.

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